KEYLA HOLMES
campus editor
keyla.holmes@my.tccd.edu

Matt Rife, American comedian and actor, leaves it all out on the stage in his Netflix special “Natural Selection”. He makes fun of women who utilize protection crystals, shares his distaste for young people and criticizes social media trolls.  

Rife confidently moves across the stage, acting out certain scenes in his storytelling to make his performance more captivating. However, the crude middle school- like jokes, and regular check-ins with the audience to see if they were “still fun”, or responding positively to his more risky bits, was underwhelming.  

He spends a decent amount of time telling the audience that women who utilize crystals don’t know how to take accountability for their own actions. While he shares some valuable messages, their buried underneath a misogynistic attitude, due to him refering to women using the infamous B-word. 

Despite his distasteful rants, his presence on stage was captivating. His hand gestures, voices and utilization of his entire body was far more entertaining than a majority of what he said. 

Rife exemplifies this best during his bits about his love for old people and masturbation. Don’t worry about risque hand gestures as far as the masturbation part goes. He simply shares with the audience his first time getting caught by his stepdad. It’s also important to make clear that the masturbation and old people bits don’t coincide. 

However, he does make it clear what he would do with an elderly woman if given the opportunity. Aside from the crude humor through his talk about old people, there’s a genuinity in his love for them. He shares with the audience his experience as a teenager visiting his grandma in hospice, leaving her room to talk to the man next door.  

Rife talked about how amazing his stories were, and how those conversations influenced him to also want to have a full life. This part of the special was admirable, and let the audience in on a more sincere part of Rife. 

 He finished his special off with ranting about social media trolls. Rife doesn’t hold back at all during this segment.  

Rife provides an example by talking about an incident that recently happened to him. He goes on to share with the audience his situation with a flight attendant. Making it very clear from the beginning that he not only knows safety rules in regards to flying, but understands why they’re in place, he starts to talk about his backpack having too much in it.  

He of course continues with the offensive humor, making fun of an apparently heavy set man sitting in the same aisle as him to later connect it to what the flight attendant said. 

Aside from her comment, the point of this story isn’t really even what happened on the plane. It’s that after it happened, Rife tweeted about it only to spend a significant amount of time after the incident arguing with people online. 

He tells the audience that he’s someone who’s apparently pretty defensive. His performance reflects this aspect of his personality throughout the show, considering his consistent check-ins with the audience to see if they’re still good. Rife is ready to defend himself despite all of his distasteful jokes. It’s what supports him in standing in front of the Washington D.C. crowd.